John M. (John Morrison) Thompson, 1865-1938

John Morrison Thompson was born in Richland, Iowa, on April 15, 1865. He was the fourth child of Hannah Van Dyke Thompson, the second wife of Thomas Thompson, who owned the Thompson House Hotel in Richland. John's formal education ended in the eighth grade, when he was sixteen. One of his teachers was his half-sister, Amelia, who was twelve years his senior.

In the fall of 1881, after a summer job riding a mule carrying mailbags between Richland and the railroad station at Sigourney, Iowa, he moved to Sigourney to learn the printing trade as an apprentice at the Sigourney News. On completing his training in 1885, he went to Geneva, Nebraska, as printer at The Republican. In April 1887 he moved to Lincoln, and began working for the Nebraska State Journal as a typesetter. In July of that year, he went on the road for the Journal as "correspondent and solicitor." By 1889 he was "invited to try to become a news gatherer," and in 1891 he became the State House reporter, a position he held for forty-seven years until his death in 1938.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

This collection consists of one volume of "The Collected Papers of John M. Thompson, Political Columnist and State House Reporter from 1891 to 1938 for the Nebraska State Journal Papers, Lincoln, Nebraska," introduced, annotated and indexed by his son, John B. Thompson. The volume was reproduced from three scrapbooks of Thompson's newspaper columns and correspondence 1891-1938, which were compiled by John M. Thompson's wife, Ethel B. Thompson.

Note: The photo component [RG1791.PH] contains thirty-seven photographic prints, ca. 1890-1910. The photographs depict Native Americans from several nations including Lakota, Ponca, and Cheyenne; of Nebraska parks, and fires in Lincoln, Nebraska; the Nebraska National Guard on maneuvers in Lincoln during the Spanish-American War; and photographs of the state capitol building.